Shāfiʿīyah, also called Madhhab Shāfiʿī, English Shafiites, in Islām, one of the four Sunnī schools of religious law, derived from the teachings of Abū ʿAbd Allāh ash-Shāfiʿī (767–820). This legal school (madhhab) stabilized the bases of Islāmic legal theory, admitting the validity of both divine will and human speculation. Rejecting provincial dependence on the living sunnah (traditional community practice) as the source of precedent, the Shafiites argued for the unquestioning acceptance of Ḥadīth (traditions concerning the life and utterances of the Prophet) as the major basis for legal and religious judgments and the use of qiyas (analogical reasoning) when no clear directives could be found in the Qurʾān or Ḥadīth. Ijmāʿ (consensus of scholars) was accepted but not stressed. The Shāfiʿī school predominates in eastern Africa, parts of Arabia, and Indonesia.
Alternative titles: Madhhab Shāfiʿī; Shafiites
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